Is This The Real Life / Is This Just Fantasy?

Fourteen women / fourteen accordions: The Main Squeeze Orchestra.

Quote member Kelly Alba: "You put it on your chest and you wear it right next to your heart. You squeeze it, and it's like a big musical hug."



They also competed on America's Got Talent. America hated it.



[Now, if only the press (I'm looking at you, Village Voice) would stop calling this an "all-girl" orchestra, and if only America's Got Talent would take back comments like "[the (male) director is] kind of like the Hugh Heffner of the accordion world" and "for some reason I thought this was going to be sexy."
Respect and equality, wouldn't that be novel?]

Yeah Darling / You Wear It So Well

The Vienna Philharmonic is instituting a new uniform for its women musicians in the name of a more "homogenous, yet modern" look.
Translation: lady tuxes (picture).

A fun fact left out of the yahoo and jezebel articles? Turns out the women have reservations.

New Found Glory

You guys! One of Magnus Lindberg's early works (that would be: Kraft) requires the percussionists to pick out materials for the performance from a local junkyard. (That way every performance is unique and locally-based, see.) So here it is - percussionists of the NYPO finding their instruments:



I wish this was an everyday occurrence. Although maybe with an expanded hunting-ground; I don't spend much time hanging out in junkyards.

(via fileunder?)
("Kraft" would be such a great piece to hear live...in the meantime, there's always NAXOS.)

So Airplane / Airplane / Sorry I'm Late

Stranded on a runway
landed on a plan
what else to do but
impromptu jam?

Mozart-style.



(via consumerist)
(thank you to mburns!)

I'm Not Your Toy

Modified Toy Orchestra: exactly what it sounds like. Plus, the BBC's got a behind-the-scenes video article.

The interesting part about this: "we take these [toys] and learn how to play them as instruments." As if there is an instrument buried inside every object if only you know how to make it sound. I like it.


(special thanks to Kevin!)

Never Failed Me Yet

The Portsmouth Sinfonia - formed in 1970, there was one major entrance requirement: you had to either be a non-musician, or pick up an instrument you'd never touched before.
Hilarity ensues! A corollary rule required the musicians to play to the best of their ability (ie. not to play badly intentionally), but that only gets you so far on an unknown instrument, you know? As Dan Visconti at NewMusicBox points out, there's a certain joie de vivre (and, I think, earnestness) that makes this a "laugh with" rather than a "laugh at."

And it's not just the funny; there's some history going on here too. The idea of an ensemble made up of people who don't know how to play their instruments was a nod to Cardew's scratch orchestra and the state of experimental music; Gavin Bryars and Brian Eno were both on board - plus (of course) a select group of amateurs and enthusiasts. By the time it fell apart in 1979, the Portsmouth Sinfonia had played concerts, put out records, and even a film. That is wonderful.



(via newmusicbox)

Music Of My Heart

The Heart Chamber Orchestra might be a little bit of a niche-group.
See here: The twelve musicians hook themselves up to ECG sensors monitoring their heartbeats. That information is fed to a software program designed to generate a score in real time and send it to the laptop screens placed in front of the musicians.

The idea is that the music literally "comes from the heart." KIND OF CHEESY? But also kind of wonderful: I think this would be an amazing (if somewhat style-limited) live performance - the concept, the visuals, the sound...

(Question: I wonder what would happen if one of the musicians had a heart attack?)

Heart Chamber Orchestra from pure on Vimeo.

(via notcot and wired)

You And Me Baby We Ain't Nothing' But Mammals

Where was I last night?
Funny you should ask. I was at Millenium Park, listening to the Grant Park Orchestra accompany segments of Planet Earth projected onto a huge screen. It's part of a six-concert tour (Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Baltimore, LA, Philadelphia), and it was - breathtaking. This is the best of sweeping movie music, guys.

Click here for a short interview with composer/conductor George Fulton. You know the BBC flew him to the Arctic to prep for the third installment of the documentary trilogy? Not a bad gig for a composer, am I right?

I'll leave you with this giant shark. (Imagine the music LIVE.)

I Write Mostly On Hotel Paper

Typewriter Music tickatackatickaboom. Composed by Leroy Anderson in the 1950; played here by the Strauss Festival Orchestra in 2008.



(via neatorama)

Hey! Next you hear from me I'll be back on the States-side of the Atlantic, and then I'll have the time and internet access to get you some real doozies I've stored up for just this occasion...get excited please.

Listen To The Sound From Deep Within

YOU WORK-IN-THE-OFFICE-ALL-DAY-TYPES SHOULD KNOW:

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has a free and on-demand listening page supplemented with videos, listening guides, composer interviews, feature articles, and web links. Still a work in progress, but a couple interesting pieces (see: Stravinsky and Schneider).

Leave The Audience In Silence Like My Name Was John Cage

It's easy to talk about Cage's 4'33" - but have you ever actually seen a performance all the way through? I THOUGHT NOT. This one is a (rockin' (sort of)) full orchestral version.

On Top Of The World

Apparently today is all about superimposition.



This one was supported by the Arts Council of England.
(via creativereview)

Heathcliff! / It's Me, It's Cathy / I've Come Home Now

The Ukulele Orchestra covering Kate Bush's literary masterpiece? I think I'm in love.




(bonus: the Kate Bush version)
(via youtube)

I'm Finding My Way Back To You

This past February, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra set aside two evenings and invited 600 amateur musicians to rehearse and perform Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony with the professionals.

Looks like they didn't sell too many tickets, but WHAT FUN.

Rusty Musicians with the BSO:



(via insidetheclassics)

I Left Home Just A Week Before / And I've Never Ever Seen A Jedi Before

He's everywhere!











(Orchestra Camerata; Orchestra Háskólábio; Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira; Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra; Darth Vader's Orchestra)